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Are Science and Faith in Conflict?

God and Reason

Fall 2013

Martin Ester

September 26, 2013

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Introduction

• Richard Dawkins

[Dawkins 2006]

“Faith is the great cop-out,

the great excuse to evade

the need to think and

evaluate evidence. Faith is

belief in spite of, even

perhaps because of, the lack

of evidence.”

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Introduction

• In the past, distinction between physical, scientific questions (about nature) and metaphysical questions (about God).

• Science (and technology) has been extremely successful.

• Now, scientism claims “. . . the methods of natural science, or the categories and things recognized in natural science, form the only proper elements in any philosophical or other inquiry.”

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What is Science?

• Originally, any systematic study leading to

knowledge (“scientia”).

• Today, often restricted to natural science.

• But what is natural science?

� Philosophy of science

• Main approach: define scientific methods.

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What is Science?

• Induction [Bacon 1605]Inference of general laws from the observation of many special instances.

• Falsificationism [Popper 1934]A universal proposition cannot logically be proved by any number of observations, but can be disproved by one observation.

� But scientists do in general try to defend their theories!

• Sociology of science [Kuhn 1962]Phase of refinement of current paradigm, followed by replacement of current paradigm by a new one.“. . . no standard higher than the consent of the relevant community. . .”

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What is Science?

• Approach 2: [Hutchinson 2011]

identify necessary characteristics of science

(not sufficient): reproducibility and clarity.

• Science relies on the assumption (faith!) that

nature is governed by comprehensible laws

that lead to reproducible events.

• This assumption cannot a priori be inferred

from a scientific model, it can only be

supported a posteriori (it works!).

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What is Science?

• Reproducibility:

Experiments or observations can be repeated

by any competent person with the same

results.

• Distinguish

experimental science:

physics, . . ., and

observational science:

astronomy, . . .

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What is Science?

• Clarity:

The results of any scientific investigation have to be

expressed in terms that are unambiguous.

• Otherwise, cannot tell whether repeating an

experiment/observation obtains the same result.

• E.g., use numbers and units to measure the results.

• E.g., use a controlled vocabulary with well-defined

terms, such as a biological ontology, describing

biological species.

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Limitations of Clarity

• Music can be recorded and represented as a sequence of numbers (frequencies / amplitudes of sound waves).

• This is a clear description which makes music reproducible.

• But this description does not capture the full meaning of music:

- Expert observers can appreciate the artistry of the composer and the performer.

- Music evokes emotional, subjective responses.

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Limitations of Clarity

• Scientists describe the world at different levels: physics, chemistry, biology, . . .

• Scientists also describe the world, at the same level, from different perspectives: e.g., light as particle and wave.

• But chemistry is not just physics, and biology not just chemistry.

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Limitations of Reproducibility

• History is the academic discipline which uses a

narrative to examine a sequence of past events and

to determine the patterns of cause and effect that

determine them.

• History is often concerned with

unique events in the past that

cannot be experimentally

repeated or observed multiple times.

• But the study of history has high standards of

scholarship and has high theoretical and practical

value.

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Limitations of Reproducibility

• Example: History of Nazi Germany.

• How could Hitler gain so much power and commit

such terrible crimes?

• How can we avoid this to happen again?

• These are very important questions, but historians

still disagree on the answers.

• Note that German historians normally take other

approaches than other historians, because of their

personal relationship to their history.

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Limitations of Reproducibility

• Example: Evolutionary explanation of moral

values.

• Evolution of moral values cannot be

experimentally repeated.

• Evolution of moral values has not been

observed.

• It is a subject of history, not of science.

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Hidden Assumptions

• Ethics is the discipline of systematizing, defending, and recommending concepts of right and wrong behavior.

• [Harris 2010]

“Neurobiology is allowing us to study – as a matter of scientific fact – which policies, laws and lifestyles lead to the greatest human wellbeing.”

• E.g., if the sum of general wellbeing is increased by the torture of a terrorist suspect, then torture is not even a necessary evil – it becomes a moral duty.

• Harris adopts one specific position within ethical philosophy, utilitarianism, i.e. that the greatest happiness of the greatest number should be society's goal.

• This assumption is a philosophical, non-scientific position.

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Religion

• Religion is an organized collection of

beliefs, cultural systems, and world

views that relate humanity to the

supernatural, and to spirituality.

• From their beliefs about the cosmos

and human nature, they tend to derive

morality, ethics, religious laws or a

preferred lifestyle.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion

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Religion

• Many, but not all, religions include faith in

God.

• Faith is to act upon a worldview that is

plausible but unproven.

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Science and Religion

• The actions of free agents are not reproducible.

• God is a free agent.

• Therefore, God cannot be the subject of scientific

investigation.

• A miracle is an event not ascribable to human power

or the laws of nature and consequently attributed to

a supernatural, especially divine, agency.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miracle

• Miracles are per definition not reproducible.

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Scientific Study of Prayer

• Can healing claims be tested scientifically?And what are the results? E.g. the Great Prayer Experiment

[Benson et al., 2006]

• Limitations of the experimental study:

- Most participants were from the Unity School, which does not believe in the power of prayer.

- Prayer was distant, which is different from most real-life prayer.

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Scientific Study of Prayer

• Which scientific methods should be used?[Gunther Brown 2012]

• Comparison of medical records before/after prayer.

• Surveys: how do patients perceive healing?

• Clinical trials: can health outcomes of prayer be measured?

• Follow-up: do healing experiences produce lasting effects?

• Cannot prove that healing is due to God’s answer to prayer.

• But can examine the results, e.g. confirm that healing happened and investigate the change of direction of the lives of healed patients.

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Integrating Science and Christian Faith

• God has created the universe with its natural laws.

• Science is the discovery of these laws.

• God can act in unusual ways to demonstrate his

personal love.

• Humans are more than their physics, chemistry,

biology, psychology, sociology, . . .

• They are also called to know God and live in loving

relationship with him and with other humans.

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References

Francis Bacon: “The Advancement of Learning”, Henrie Tomes, 1605.

H. Benson et al: “Study of the Therapeutic Effects of Intercessory Prayer (STEP)

in cardiac bypass patients: a multicenter randomized trial of uncertainty and

certainty of receiving intercessory prayer”, American Heart Journal, 2006.

Candy Gunther Brown: "Testing Prayer: Science and Healing“, Harvard

University Press, 2012.

Richard Dawkins: “The God Delusion”, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2006.

Sam Harris: “The Moral Landscape”, Free Press, 2010.

Ian Hutchinson: “Monopolizing Knowledge”, Fias Publishing, 2011.

Tim Keller: “The Reason for God”, Penguin Books, 2008.

Thomas Kuhn: “The Structure of Scientific Revolutions”, University of Chicago

Press, 1962.

Karl Popper: “Logik der Forschung (The Logic of Scientific Discovery)”, 1934.